Present remote control systems do not have a method or apparatus to tell if a device is in an operating mode or not. Currently, most remote control systems use a toggle switch on the device for turning the device off rather than turning the device off with the off button on the remote control or remote control system. This leaves the remote control system effectively in an operating state when it is off, thereby rendering the device uncontrollable from a remote control. As a result, there is a need for a system, method and apparatus which can sense the state or status of a device and indicate it to a remote control or remote control system. Further, in other systems a state memory can fail if the status of the device is changed and the state memory is not aware of the change. The present invention is capable of storing the status mode of a device as well as tracking previous states and actions to determine specific sets of actions to cause a specific result. This reduces the dependency on state memory.